Text 4: Scientific career in agriculture / plant breeding
Career Interview.
Q: Briefly describe your career in agriculture / plant breeding.
A: I am a professor of agronomy and plant breeding at Auburn University. My job involves genetic research on crop plants (soybean and cotton), and I teach basic courses in agronomy and plant breeding. I also work with undergraduate student organizations, and advise undergraduate and graduate students.
Q: What type of education and experience is required for a career like yours?
A: A good, basic science and math education is a good place to start. In high school, you should concentrate on chemistry, biology and math. Undergraduate college should also be centered on the basic sciences, expanded to include genetics, biochemistry, organic chemistry, statistics, plant taxonomy, plant physiology, entomology and plant pathology. In graduate school you should continue with these subjects, adding more statistics, molecular biology, specialized genetics courses (quantitative and population genetics for example) and courses in plant breeding. Experience is generally gained on the job, but the graduate portion of the education also provides a lot of hands-on experience that will help you move smoothly into a career position, with graduate research and teaching assistantships available. With these assistantships you take classes, but also receive a small stipend for teaching classes and assisting your major professor with his research.
Q: What is your educational background?
A: Quite simply, I graduated from high school at Jackson County (Georgia) High, I received the B. S. degree from the University of Georgia in agronomy, the M. S. degree from the University of Georgia in agronomy, and the Ph. D. degree from Purdue University in agronomy. I am somewhat unusual in that all three of my college degrees were in agronomy.
Q: Why did you choose this career?
A: Did I choose the career or did the career choose me? That is an interesting question. I have always been interested in science, and grew up on a farm. So the marriage of science and agriculture was a natural for me. While I was at the University of Georgia pursuing a degree in agronomy, with no real idea of what I wanted to do, I took two classes that really interested me: genetics and plant pathology. These are two of the most important foundation courses for a career in plant breeding. With my natural interests in agriculture and science and the particular environment I was in, I sort of gravitated toward a degree in plant breeding. There was also much talk at the time about the importance of the role of agronomy, particularly plant breeding, in feeding the growing world population.
Q: Do you have any suggestions or words of wisdom for high school students interested in a career in your field?
A: Learn all you can about it. Start your academic career early; treat it like a job. Take all the math and chemistry they will allow you to take in high school; college will be a lot easier as a result. Go slow; do not try to take so many dual-enrollment classes in high school just so you can get through college faster. Get involved in student organizations, even if all you do is go to meetings. Take every opportunity to learn. Study a foreign language.
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Q: Are there any other career opportunities in your field you think students should be aware of?
A: There are many opportunities in plant breeding, besides being a university professor. More plant breeders are employed in industry than anywhere else. The big corporations (Monsanto, Syngenta, BASF) have a great need for well-trained plant breeders. Someone has to develop the next generation of green bean varieties for the canning industry for example. This same example can be applied to any plant species that has proven useful, and there are many of them. The broader field of agronomy has even more opportunities. Even the United Nations and the U.S. military have need for agronomists. As long as people eat food, wear clothing, and need shelter there will be a need for plant breeders and agronomists.
Q: If applicable, briefly describe your research interests.
A: My interests have changed over the years, from primarily being a soybean breeder to my current interest, which is cotton breeding. I am working mostly on development of cotton with resistance to nematodes, and tolerance to heat and drought stress. I am also interested in germplasm development in cotton (discovery of new genes in plants that are related to cultivated cotton). I also work to develop improved cotton varieties for farmers in Alabama, particularly varieties with higher yield and better fiber qualities.
Answer the questions.
1. What educational background is required for a career of a Professor in plant breeding?
2. What are the Professors reasons for choosing agricultural science as a career choice?
3. What are career opportunities in plant breeding?
4. What are the Professors research interests?
Unit 2. Attending an academic conference
Vocabulary
- scientific meeting
- conference
- symposium (.. symposia)
- colloquium (.. colloquia)
- seminar / workshop
- - school / short course / study days
- , session
- plenary session
- discussion
- panel discussion
- concurrent / parallel sessions
- poster session
- poster / poster paper / poster presentation
- exhibition / display
- o organizing committee
- chairman of the committee
- organizing secretary / secretary of the conference
- () call for papers
- , short abstracts. Titles and short abstracts should be submitted no later than January 31, 2015.
- extended abstracts
- summary of the presentation. Each author will be expected to submit the following material: a 50-word abstract of the paper, a summary of the presentation (up to four pages.
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- c volume of abstracts
- manuscript of the paper. In case your abstract is accepted you will be required to submit a final manuscript of your paper by December 31, 2015.
- proceedings
- application / registration form
- registration fee. Registration fee includes: participation in the conference, a copy of the proceedings and entrance to the exhibition.
- to hold a conference
- program of the conference
- format (scope) of the conference
- annual conference
- forthcoming conference
- special (extraordinary) conference
- participation in the conference ( absentee, partial, full)
- - to devote a conference to some problem
- information desk
- plenary session
- attendee, participant, member
- speaker. The keynote speaker will be Professor Brown, a distinguished chemist from the University of London.
- o review report
- report
- scientific contribution
- invited paper
- , contributed paper
- journals of the Highest Certifying Commission
- internship
